Now that the summer holidays have arrived, parents looking for activities for their kids may be tempted by the Yatouland festival. This open air theme park, running from July 2-5, is to take place in an area of 25,000 square metres in one of the car parks outside Palexpo, the exhibition hall close to Geneva airport.

Children aged two to 12 years old will have access to 50 bouncy castles of all shapes and sizes, including one resembling Noah’s Ark; another in the shape of an aircraft carrier. The inflatable devices will include features such as climbing walls and slides.

“Some of the bouncy castles are 10 metres high and 20 metres long and although the kids will be watched by their parents, we will also supervise the children,” Julien Pedron, one of the event’s organizers, told Swisster.

To keep an eye on the children playing on the inflatable castles and to assist parents and little ones with other activities, Yatouland has hired 120 staff for the three-day event. Added to that are employees serving food withingan area within the festival compound.

Nintendo is planning a centre containing all sorts of video games, and the possibility of using Wii consoles, where the user can physically mimic the action of the game he or she is playing.

Sports equipment outlet Ochsner Sport will be on hand to give children of all ages the chance to try out rollerblades, scooters and street surfs (a type of skateboard). 

For those wanting to watch films and cartoons suitable for children, every two hours the latest animation movies will be screened in two temporary Pathé cinemas inside 200 square-metre tents. The first is aimed at an audience of two to five-year-olds, while the second is more suitable for six to 10-year-olds.

Yatouland already organises children’s birthday events and runs mini attraction areas in western Switzerland over the summer. These include play areas in La Praille shopping centre in Geneva, in Thonex (one of the city’s suburbs), and Martigny in the canton of Valais. 

However this is the first year it is focusing on a larger event, which has taken nine months to arrange, Pedron told Swisster. Many private sponsors include Pfister furniture, UBS and Coca Cola, as a result of which it is hard to convey the festival’s exact budget, he said.

Yatouland has scheduled a media campaign in Suisse Romande and neighbouring France and hopes to attract 10,000 people per day, weather permitting. “Luckily there is a good forecast for the weekend so we remain optimistic. If the weather is bad, we have taken out insurance,” said Pedron.

Entrance tickets for children cost 25 francs on the door (or 20 francs if purchased via the website). For adults, entrance costs 15 francs (12 francs online). The child’s ticket includes access to all activities, except the two circuits, where for an extra two francs, kids of all ages can ride small electric cars for seven-minutes at a time.

For toddlers there is a supervised crèche for 100 children. For parents who are looking for somewhere to relax after the stress of excitable offspring jumping around on a blow-up castle, there is also a cooled relaxation tent with deck chairs.